ON
a day in the early part of February 1940 the passengers in a bus from Athens
to
Corinth were witnesses to a somewhat unusual experience. The Athens newspapers
reported the strange incident in the days that followed. At one of the stops
a thin old woman, with large and keen eyes, entered the bus. It turned out
that she had no money to pay the fare, so the driver put her off at the
next stop
which was Eleusis. While the old woman was waiting patiently, the driver could
not get the motor started again. Some of the passengers in the meantime
decided
to pay her fare. The moment she entered the bus again the engine sprang to
life and the bus continued on its journey. The old woman then upbraided
the passengers
for their slowness and selfishness and predicted very hard times ahead for
the country. To the great consternation of the passengers she then vanished
out
of their sight. Whether true or not, this is a good story. [This incident has
been reported in various publications. As related here it is taken from Mircea
Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas . II. 414. He in his turn has taken it from Hestia.]

According
to the ancient myth, thousands of years ago, just such a thin old woman
had
arrived in Eleusis in search of her daughter. As she rested near the Maiden
well where the women fetched their water, she was found and befriended by
the
children of King Keleos and Queen Metaneira. The royal family took her in and
the kind old nurse Baubo gave her barley water with mint to drink.[Robert
Graves, The Greek Myths, 1.90.]

The
Myth of the Two Goddesses

The myth
which forms the basis of the Eleusinian Mysteries is told in a long epic poem
known as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. The unknown author begins his poem
with the words: ‘I begin to sing of the fair-haired Demeter, august Goddess
- of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus abducted.’ This Aidoneus
is Plouton, the god of Hades, the underworld, where the dead go in Greek mythology.
Demeter’s daughter by Zeus, Kore (the Maiden) was picking flowers in a
field when the earth suddenly opened up and she was carried away by Plouton
who wanted her for his wife as Queen of the underworld. Her mother heard her
cries but did not know what had happened and went searching for her - as the
Hymn relates:

Bitter
pain seized her heart, and she rent the covering upon her divine hair with her
dear hands; her dark cloak she cast down from both her shoulders and sped, like
a wild bird, over the firm land and yielding sea, seeking her child ... For
nine days, queenly Deo wandered over the earth with flaming torches in her hands,
so grieved that she never tasted ambrosia and the sweet draught of nectar, nor
sprinkled her body with water.

She finally
found out from Helios, the sun-god - who had seen what had happened - that her
daughter was in Hades. Angry with Zeus who had consented to the abduction, she
left the world of the gods and entered the world of humanity in the disguise
of an old woman. That is when we find her at the Maiden well at Eleusis. Having
spent some time in the Household of King Keleos, she finally disclosed her identity
and gave the command that a temple be built for the performance of her rites.
‘And I myself will teach my rites, that thereafter you may reverently
perform them.’

She
then caused a terrible drought to come over the earth so that nothing would
grow.
This finally forced Zeus to send Hermes to Hades to release her daughter, now
Queen Persephone (‘bringer of destruction’)[
Ibid. Vol 11, Index. ]
and so mother and daughter were happily reunited. But before she left Hades
Persephone had eaten some pomegranate seeds (7 in one version). This meant
that
having tasted the food of the underworld, she had to go back again to spend
‘one third part of the seasons’ in the lower world while spending
the rest of the year with her mother at Olympos. Demeter then made ‘the
whole earth full with leaves and flowers.’

Then,
to the kings of Eleusis who deal justice, Triptolemos and Diokles, the horse-driver,
and the valiant Eumolpos and Keleos, leader of the people, she showed the conduct
of her rites and taught them all her mysteries ... awful mysteries which no
one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the Gods
checks the voice.

Madame
Blavatsky saw Demeter as symbolizing ‘ the intellectual soul, or rather
the Astral soul...

This
is the main outline of the myth on which the Mysteries of Eleusis were based.
As with most ancient myths it holds several deeper meanings. Kore-Persephone
was plucking the flower of the Narcissus (in other versions poppies) - symbolizing
the beauty of the soul reflected in matter - when she was seized by the King
of the lower world of desire. She can be seen as symbolizing humanity, which
spends one part of its evolution in the lower world, in incarnation, and another
part in the higher worlds, between incarnations.

Madame
Blavatsky saw Demeter as symbolizing ‘the intellectual soul, or rather
the Astral soul, half emanation from the spirit and half tainted with matter
through a succession of spiritual evolutions.’ She sees the old nurse,
Baubo, as symbolizing matter. ‘Until then, doomed to her fate, Demeter,
or Magna -Mater, the Soul, wonders and hesitates and suffers; but once
having partaken of the magic potion prepared by Baubo, she forgets her sorrows.’

The
importance of the myth cannot be underestimated.

The story
of the two goddesses as related in the myth served as the basis for some of
the ceremonies enacted in the Mysteries, including such open and popular activities
as large processions and nightly searches by torchlight, re-enacting the search
for Demeter for her daughter. The importance of the myth cannot be underestimated.
As Walter Otto, one of the few scholars who seems to have got the real ‘feel’
of the Mysteries, writes:

What,
then, is myth? - An old story, lived by the ancestors and handed down to the
descendants. But the past is only one aspect of it. The true myth is inseparably
bound up with the cult. The once-upon-a-time is also a now, what was is also
a living event. Only in its twofold unity of then and now does a myth fulfil
its true essence. The cult is its present form, the re-enactment of an archetypal
event, situated in the past but in essence eternal. And the moment when this
myth is realized is the festival of the gods, the holy days, recurring at fixed
interval ...

The stupendous
moment has returned, the moment when the young goddess was ravished by darkness,
when the divine mother sought her, mourning and lamenting her, until she learned
that she was the Queen of the Dead and would remain so; but she rises up again
and with her the grain to which men owe their civilization.

The
Mysteries of Demeter and Kore

The Eleusinian
Mysteries were the most famous and most prestigious of all the Mysteries of
classical antiquity. They were highly praised by practically all authors of
the period. The original buildings at Eleusis were several times enlarged or
replaced by more magnificent new temples, both in the heyday of Athenian power
and later in the Roman period.

As far
as can be ascertained the Mysteries were inaugurated before 1500 BC and were
continued annually until the 4th Century AD. Most of the buildings
are thought to have been destroyed during or after the invasion of the Goths
under Alaric in AD 395. Even before that the emperor Theodosios had issued strict
laws against secret cults. But it may not come as a surprise that the Christian
saint Demetrios became the protector of agriculture, thus replacing Demeter.
There was even a local saint, St Demetra, until quite recently.

...actual
initiations took place in secret in special buildings under the guidance of
the hierophant of the Mysteries and his assistants.

During
the nearly two thousand years that the Mysteries were in operation they were
protected and maintained by the State of Athens. Athenian law punished with
the death penalty anyone who revealed any of the secrets of the cult. This even
applied to accidental intrusion into the sacred premises. The dramatist Aischylos
was set upon by an infuriated crowd in the theater when they thought that he
had revealed some secrets of the Mysteries in one of his tragedies. He was only
saved by the intervention of members of the Areopagos who promised to investigate
the case. Some parts of the Mysteries were held in public, in the open air,
and anyone could witness what was going on and even take part in it. But the
actual initiations took place in secret in special buildings under the guidance
of the hierophant of the Mysteries and his assistants.

The conduct
of both the lesser and greater Mysteries was in the hands of members of two
families, the Eumolpids and the Kerykes. The hierophant and his two principal
female assistants were members of the former family and held their office for
life. The torchbearer, second to the hierophant in importance, and the herald
were of the family of Kerykes. Besides these main officiants there were numerous
priests and priestesses performing various functions. There were also ‘all
holy’ women who had no communion with men and presumably had a role to
play in the rites of the Thesmophoria to which only women were admitted - and
of which we know nothing. The initiates were called mystal and those
that had received the final initiation epoptal. Each candidate had as
a sponsor an initiate who was his mystagogos. This sponsor would introduce
him to the Mystery authorities and usually stayed with him until he had been
initiated. We learn that only he ‘who had clean hands and intelligible
speech’ (that is, Greek) and ‘who is pure from all pollution and
whose soul is conscious of no evil and who has lived well and justly’
is being accepted for initiation. But men and women and even slaves were admitted
if accepted by the hierophant.

The
Lesser Mysteries

Happy
is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate
and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead,
down in the darkness and gloom.

This
passage from the Hymn to Demeter applies especially to the Lesser Mysteries,
which Aristophanes tells us were devoted to Persephone. They would thus mainly
be concerned with the end of physical life and the entrance into Hades. The
Lesser Mysteries were held annually in Spring at Agra, a suburb of Athens, where
there must have been a temple dedicated to Persphone, although the exact site
is no longer known. The candidates took part in ceremonies of purification,
they fasted, bathed in the river Ilissos and sang hymns. Of the actual initiations
we know nothing.

The
Initiates were also shown the results that certain actions in the present would
have in the astral world after death.

C. W.
Leadbeater tells us that in the Lesser Mysteries teachings were given about
life after death in the astral world. The Initiates were also shown the results
that certain actions in the present would have in the astral world after death.
The teachings were illustrated by well-known examples found in Greek mythology.
There was the story of Tantalos, who in Hades was surrounded by water which
always receded when he tried to slacken his thirst - symbolizing what would
happen after death to people still full of physical cravings and desires. Another
was the story of Sisyphos who tried to roll a large stone to the top of a hill.
The moment it got there it rolled down again - illustrating the futility of
personal ambitions for selfish ends.

So the
many thousands who throughout the centuries were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries
no longer had any fear of death. They had gained some knowledge of what life
would be in the hereafter. As Sophokles explains: ‘Thrice happy those
among mortals who, having seen those Mysteries, will go down to Hades; only
they can have true life there; for the rest all this is evil.’

The
Greater Mysteries

These
- the Mysteries of Demeter - were held annually in autumn and lasted nine days.
A fifty-five day truce was kept around this event all over Greece to allow participants
to travel to Athens and back unmolested and without getting involved in the
frequent small wars among the city-states. Mystal from all over Greece
would usually arrive a few days early to prepare themselves for their initiation
under the guidance of their mystagogoi.

On the
day before the beginning of the Mysteries, the Hiera, or sacred objects
of the cult - which were normally kept in the Anaktoron (the Holy of the Holies)
and to which only the hierophant had access - were brought in state to Athens
by the priests and priestesses of the rite. They were held there in the Eleusinion,
situated just below the Akropolis to announce the arrival of Demeter to the
priestesses of Athena, the goddess and protectress of Athens.

On the
first day of the Mysteries the Athenian authorities called upon the people of
Athens to take part in a festive assembly at which - among other activities
- a proclamation was read stating the requirements for initiation. Only those
who had previously been initiated in the Lesser Mysteries were fit for initiation
into the Greater, the telete (from teleo, to make perfect).

The second
day was a day of purification. The call went out: “To the sea, ye Mystai!"
So they all went down to the sea to bathe. This was thought to clean them both
from physical and emotional impurities. The third and fourth days were spent
in further preparations for the coming events.

The fifth
day marked the culmination of the official celebrations of the Mysteries. At
dawn a large procession of priests and priestesses left the Eleusinion. As the
procession moved out of Athens towards Eleusis it was joined by numerous people.
It must have been a remarkable sight. At the head was a carriage with a statue
of Iacchos (the son of Demeter by Zeus), then came the priests and priestesses
with another carriage with the Hiera, the sacred objects kept in large wicker
baskets, guarded by the Ephebes, myrtle-crowned young men carrying shields and
spears. They were followed by the hierophant and his assistants, by officials
from Athens and other Greek cities and by the myrtle-crowned mystal and
their sponsors. Large numbers of ordinary citizens usually joined the procession
winding its way out onto the ‘sacred road’ to Eleusis. Herodotus
estimated the crowd at about thirty thousand!

The distance
to Eleusis was about fourteen miles and several stops had to be made on the
way for rest and refreshments. We can still imagine the procession moving through
the hills and now and then down towards the sea opening up vistas of distant
mountains and the blue sea. There can be no doubt about the enthusiasm of the
people. The hills echoed with the festive cry of the marchers - as Aristophanes
so vividly pictures it in his play The Frogs:

Come,
arise, from sleep awaking,

Come
the fiery torches shaking,

Oh
Iacchos, Oh Iacchos.

Morning
Star that shinest nightly,

Lo,
the mead is blazing brightly.

Age
forgets its years and sadness.

Lift
thy flashing torches o’er us.

Marshall
all the blameless train.

Lead,
Oh lead the way before us.

The procession
arrived at Eleusis long after sunset and the arrival by torchlight of this enormous
crowd of people must have been an impressive sight. With a great ovation the
Hiera were carried into the sacred enclosure by the hierophant and part of the
rest of the night was spent in dancing and singing.

During
the days and nights that followed the secret parts of the Mysteries were enacted
in the Telesterion and its immediate surroundings which were surrounded by a
high wall. Again we know practically nothing of what took place except that
this part of the Mysteries is thought to have consisted of:

Dromena,
rituals enacted:

Delknymena,
sacred objects and symbols shown:

Legomena,
words and sentences spoken.

Most
likely scenes from the myth of the two goddesses were enacted in which the initiates
participated.

Leadbeater
tells us that in the Greater Mysteries teachings about life after death were
given, this time including the experiences in the mental world, what in modern
Theosophy we call Devachan. This may have been illustrated by the soul entering
the Elysian fields as envisaged in Greek mythology.

There
is some uncertainty concerning what was regarded as the final stage of the Mysteries,
the Epoptela. According to Mylonas the mystal were only admitted
to that stage a year after their initiation into the telete. For the
great mass of the mystal their initiation into the Greater Mysteries
ended with their participation in the telete. For the few who wished
to go a little further the opportunity existed to become epoptal, ‘those
who behold’.

Madame
Blavatsky writes that the epopteia is alluded to by Plato in Phaedrus
(64), when he says: ‘In consequence of this divine initiation, we
become spectators of entire, simple, immovable and blessed visions, resident
in the pure light.’ She comments that they thus ‘saw visions, gods,
spirits’. But they presumably must have been out of the body as she further
quotes Plato as saying ‘We were ourselves pure and immaculate, being liberated
from this surrounding vestment, which we donominate body, and to which we are
now bound like an oyster to its shell.’

On the
ninth day the mystal started on their homeward journey, most of them
returning to Athens in small groups. And so ended - in each autumn for nearly
2,000 years - one of the most remarkable religious activities known in history.
Not only the ancients, but even many modern scholars, realize the tremendous
influence for good of the Eleusinian Mysteries. As Eliade says, they not only
played a central role in Greek religious life, but indirectly made a significant
contribution to the history of European culture.

There
is no doubt that as time went on a certain degeneration set in. This seems to
happen in all religious activities. So we find that at a comparatively early
stage animal sacrifices - which were very common in antiquity - were introduced,
though they never formed a vital part of the Mysteries. It is to the Orphic
and Pythagorean brotherhoods that we have to look for abstention from animal
sacrifices and a vegetarian diet. The quality of the Eleusinian priesthood probably
also deteriorated towards the end.

The
Secrets still well-kept

With
all this, one remarkable fact remains. We still know nothing of the real Mysteries.
We do not know what its rituals were or what the words spoken or chanted were.
Leadbeater’s chapter on the Greek Mysteries in the book quoted is perhaps
one of the clearest expositions that can be found, especially as he also gives
us some of the occult side without giving away any secrets. Mylonas expresses
very well the situation with regard to the secrets of ‘the awful mysteries
which no one may pry into or utter’ when he writes:

The last
Hierophant carried with him to the grave the secrets which had been transmitted
orally for untold generations, from the one high priest to the next. A thick,
impenetrable veil indeed still covers securely the rites of Demeter and protects
them from the curious eyes of modern students. How many nights and days have
been spent over books, inscriptions, and works of art by eminent scholars in
their effort to lift the veil! How many wild and ingenious theories have been
advanced in superhuman effort to explain the Mysteries! How many nights I have
spent standing on the steps of the Telesterion, flooded with the magic silver
light of a Mediterranean moon, hoping to catch the mood of the initiates, hoping
that the human soul might get a glimpse of what the rational mind could not
investigate! All in vain - the ancient world has kept its secret well and the
Mysteries of Eleusis remain unrevealed.

I shall
close with another quotation from Walter Otto, who seems to have caught the
atmosphere and the true spirit of the Mysteries in the following words:

The Eleusinian
mystes lived the miracle of intimacy with the goddesses, he experienced
their presence. He was received into the sphere of their acts and sufferings,
into the immediate reality of their sublime being. His famous vision was no
mere looking on. It was sublimation to a higher existence, a transformation
of his being. What wonder then that the beholder of this vision should have
been confident of a higher destiny in life, and in death, where Persephone was
Queen!